When we are proud of having done something good, we should look at ourselves again through the prism of great men, as it certainly is gandhiwho led by example and became the leader of no violence.
Gandhi Biography
Was a spirit boss of India and leader religious internationally famous
Karamchand Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869 in a remote part of India, in the coastal city of Porbandar, in the district of Gujarat.
In his spirit formation Mohandas, different cultures and creeds participated, such as the Hindu, the Muslim or the Jain. Gandhi did not believe that he was connected only to other humans, but also to plants, microbes, water, fire and wind.
At the age of 13, he was married to a young woman to whom he had been engaged since he was 6 years old. He fell deeply in love with the young woman and that is why he left the parental home the night his dying father died. The guilt that this act brought him marked him in such a way that he would later declare himself against child marriage and in favor of sexual continence.
Nehru and Gandhi
In London lived between 1888 and 1891, was initiated there in the reading of the first Indian classic, the Bhagavad Gita, which he would come to ponder as “the book par excellence for the knowledge of the truth”. He linked with the teachings of Christand for a time he was so drawn to the christian ethics. From that time are his attempts to synthesize the precepts of the buddhismthe Christianity, the islamism and his native religion, through what he pointed out as the unifying principle of all of them: the idea of renunciation.
read to Tolstoy, in whom he would later find the guide for the improvement of the practice and the nonviolence theory. He returned to India with a law degree, He traveled in search of Western wisdom and returned with the secret that he had made wise men. Hindus.
accepted a job in London, and when he was about to return to India he embarked on the task of defending a group of Hindus derogatorily called Sami, who were racially discriminated against. He then decided to postpone the departure for 30 days in order to organize the resistance of his compatriots, and the month became twenty-two years.
He created a movement dedicated to agitation by legal means.
Starting in 1904, he changed his lifestyle and led a simple communal existence on the outskirts of Johannesburg where he founded a commune called Tolstoy. At that time he outlined the theory of non-violent activism, which he first launched to oppose the registration law.
He went to jail several times, but the civil resistance movement had several partial successes.
gandhi arrived in India in 1915 as a true hero. The masses of mumbai They gave him a warm welcome.
He founded a quasi-monastic community in which foreign dress, spiced foods, and private property were prohibited. Its members dedicated themselves to only two material jobs: agriculture, to obtain sustenance, and hand weaving, to procure shelter.
From a group of urban middle classes, became a mass organization rooted in the villages and in the peasantry. Major campaigns of civil disobedience were launched, ranging from massive refusal to pay taxes to boycotting the authorities.
On January 30, 1948, when he was on his way to community prayer at dusk, he was hit by the bullets of a young man Hindu.
Gandhi and the independence of India
gandhi is the main figure related to the phenomenon of indian independence of the British authority. From 1918 he was linked to the Indian nationalist movement but, contrary to what many preached, he defended that the only acceptable ways to achieve the desired independence had to be peaceful and that non-violent civil disobedience was the best method of pressure to obtain his goal. Thus, for example, he led in 1930 the famous “March of salt”, in which, after years of demonstrations and unsuccessful hunger strikes, he traveled 300 kilometers to challenge the monopoly of the production and distribution of salt that the British had.
Following the example of Gandhi, thousands of people throughout the Indian territory took water from the sea and let it evaporate to get the valuable salt that was left when it disappeared, ignoring the British authorities and the serious punishments they imposed on people who violated the rules of the imposed monopoly. The British authorities were unable to enforce the laws linked to this monopoly without applying a violent repression that further inflamed the already heated spirits of the Indians, so they recognized their impotence and a law was passed that allowed the Indians harvesting their own salt, which was a major victory for Gandhi and his supporters, demonstrating the power that peaceful protest could have.
In subsequent years, although other steps were taken to achieve greater autonomy for India and there was even talk of its possible independence, the outbreak in 1939 of the World War II and the growing conflicts between the Hindus and Muslims decisively affected their negotiations. Gandhi and his supporters fervently opposed India’s entry into the conflict., especially when its inhabitants had not been consulted and when, according to their point of view, all kinds of freedoms were denied in that territory. His attitude earned him considerable criticism from different sides, some arguing that it was unethical for him not to support the British in their fight for freedom against the Nazi dictatorship, while others said that more violent measures were necessary to ensure India’s independence at a time when the British government was at a crossroads.
However, despite the growing opposition and violence, Gandhi did not move away from his position of defending anti-violence. Gandhi’s position of demanding the complete independence of India and calling for non-collaboration in the war effort led to the imprisonment of Gandhi himself and his supporters, at the same time that serious revolts took place that were firmly repressed. Faced with the deterioration of the social situation and the serious problems arising from World War II, they made the British government promise to negotiate so that India would obtain a peaceful and progressive independence.
However, the social conflict did not stop, but was exacerbated by the growing conflicts between Muslims and Hindus. The negotiations on a possible partition of the Indian territory and the bloody clashes between Muslims and Hindus made the situation in India in the years after the end of World War II uncontrollable. More than half a million people died as a result of the protests.the clashes and dissensions that arose during the process of separation and independence, despite Gandhi’s defense of the need for a non-violent approach.
This situation continued when Gandhi was assassinated by Nathuram Godse, an extremist who followed the political doctrines of Hindu Mahasabha, who blamed Gandhi for supporting Pakistan and who opposed the doctrine of non-violence, indicating that the time had come to bang the table and end the situation that had been produced with whatever means were necessary. Godse was executed for the murder of Gandhi, who succeeded in his death in uniting the Indian people in a way that he had never accomplished in life. Gandhi’s death was lamented and mourned internationally and, although the unrest in India continued, he became a figure remembered for his decisive contribution to the independence of India under his defense of non-violence and negotiation as the best way to achieve any political goal.
Video: Documentary on Gandhi
Here you can see a documentary that recounts the life of Gandhi and the main challenges he faced: